Valencia And Murcia

South of Catalonia stretches the east coast of Spain, administered as the provinces of Castellon de la Plana, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Albacete. The first three comprise generally the territory of the old kingdom of Valencia. The latter two were a part of the kingdom of Murcia. In modern times they are identified as the regions of Va lencia and Murcia. They are heavily populated, agricultural and, where watered, moderately prosperous. The Roman, Spanish and Arabic names of the five provinces truly reflect the heterogeneous character of this part of Spain.

The Moorish east coast of Spain begins at the mouth of the Ebro, which divides Tarragona from Castellon. The boundary has been of importance for more than two thousand years. The coast line swings southwestward to Andalusia, forming a hot, dry coastal basin very much like the opposite coast of North Africa. The basin is pinched close to the sea at the Ebro, where the Montes Universales leaves only a narrow strip. It widens near Valencia, narrows again south of Va lencia and then merges with the broad valley of the Segura River to form the wide Murcian plain. The climate o the area is temperate at the Ebro, becoming warmer and more arid in the south; there the coast swings westward, and the land is broadly exposed to the sun from the south, but protected in the north by a mountain barrier against the wind and rain.

The east coast is of vital importance in the economic life of Spain because irrigation, a stable and technically advanced farm population, favorable climate, shipping facilities and other factors make it possi ble to provide world markets with a continuous flow of specialty pro duce. But the influence of this region on the agriculture and the economy of large distant areas of the world is greater than its trade. The citrus fruit, melon, alfalfa, date, apricot and almond industries of the west and south of the United States, for example, are exten sions of the agriculture developed on the east coast of Spain. Only a few decades ago what is now the city of Los Angeles, California, was an irrigated farm area watered by the same system of ditches that makes the Valencian coast productive, and the master canal was called the acequia, the same name the Arabs gave it in Valencia.

Of the Valencian provinces, the poorest is Castellon. Up against Tarragona in the north and the mountains to the west, Castellon is sparsely settled, rough in profile and without adequate communica tion. Much of the inland part of the province shares the character of the barren areas of Aragon which lie just to the northwest. But Castellon also has a long shore line. One of its features is the spectac ular community of Pemscola built like a fortress out into the sea. In the great Roman Catholic schism, one of the Spanish popes, Pope Luna, built this stronghold on a tiny peninsula, where he held his court while barred from St. Peter’s. The papal coat of arms was carved into the facade of the fortress, called by local fishermen, “The Bonnet.”

The province of Valencia (and the former kingdom of the same name) constitutes a part of Spain with its individual history going back to the very first settlements of Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples on its shore. It has changed very little since those times. The capital, Valencia, third largest city of Spain, stands a few miles inland from the port. The dbufera, an inland water that is neither lagoon, river nor sea, lies south of the city in the rice district. The Water Tribunal still meets once a week at the cathedral in the city, and there the farmers settle their own irrigation disputes as they have done since as long as can be remembered. The Valencian speaks his own dialect and prides himself on his own culture, as do the men of Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque provinces.

The fertile Valencian strip produces the famous sweet oranges that are shipped to all parts of Europe and have been replanted around the world. Valencia also ships lemons, rice, onions, raisins, olive oil and wine. The city manufactures processed foods, furniture, chemi cals, tobacco and silk. Valencian blue tiles are prized in all Spanishspeaking countries.

These products constitute a vital part of the Spanish export trade, but they no longer enjoy the world prestige they had in the days of the Moors and immediately afterward. Valencia’s days of glory were between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries, a long and rich period in the development of a culture transplanted from older parts of the world but uniquely Spanish in its Valencian version. The height of economic prosperity and artistic expression was reached in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries when it rivaled Barcelona and when its great university was founded under charter of Pope Alexander VI.

Sagunto, north of Valencia, was a Roman frontier town that re sisted the Carthaginian advance until it was ruthlessly destroyed by Hannibal. The resulting second Punic War firmly established Valen cia as a Roman colony. The Romans were followed by the Visigoths who in turn were replaced in the eighth century by the Moors. It became an independent emirate, ruled by the Cid himself at one time. James I of Aragon conquered Valencia midway in the thir teenth century and in the course of time the kingdom lost its identity, merging with the Spanish state.

The third Valencian province, Alicante, the Roman Lucentium, is also peopled by small landholders in the Moorish tradition, its remarkably rich huertas or gardens alternating along the coastal strip with salt marshes. The population is dense, about 270 to the square mile. The fruit orchards are abundant, numbering two and a half million trees. It is also a rich vineyard country, producing sweet wines and grapes and raisins.

South of Alicante the climate becomes dry and hot, varying widely between winter and summer. This is the old Moorish province of Todmir, rich in silk 3 oranges and ores. The city of Mursiya, the mod ern Murcia, became capital of the kingdom when it broke free of the Cordoba Caliphate. At their height the kings of Murcia controlled more of the eastern coast than the present provinces of Murcia and Albacete. The Segura River valley bears close resemblance to the coastal valleys of North Africa in appearance, architecture, popula tion, farm and orchard products and methods of cultivation. Indeed, it bears the Arab stamp more heavily than any other part of Spain; only its Gothic cathedral and other evidences of religious difference mark the cultural change since the thirteenth century.

The Carthaginians occupied this coast and built the port of Car tagena in the third century before Christ. In some archaic period, perhaps the Greek, there flourished a culture on the Segura plain capable of producing the beautiful and enigmatic figure called the Lady of Elche, now shown in the Prado museum in Madrid.

Albacete rises into the meseta inland behind Murcia. This is a featureless, dry province with only 65 people to the square mile. Nevertheless, it sustains itself with grain and sheep, olives, saffron and peaches. Moorish skill made the capital city well known for its cutlery, although it never attained the fame of Toledo for swords.

The Murcia-Alicante plain runs southward to join Almeria which was governed by Granada as a result of Arab and Christian power politics of the thirteenth century. This junction is a notable one be cause the boundary between Murcia and Almeria is one of the few in Spain not anchored to some natural and secure barrier. Indeed, the entire eastern coastal plain from the Ebro River to the Cape of Gata is an exception to the minute regionalization of Spain. As the result of the freedom of movement possible here, the eastern people are even more mixed in ethnic origin than are those of the rest of the peninsula. They show more similarity from province to province, for once full occupation was established as in the case of the Moors, it was usually a long and relatively peaceful one. This left unusual scope for the spread of culture and the development of arts and techniques in an intermingling of people and ideas. In this respect, the east of Spain has been more fortunate than the rest of the coun try.

But this characteristic applies to a very narrow coastal strip. For even the provinces fronting the sea soon rise westward into the bro ken gorges and heights that are more common to this part of Spain. Here, between the sea and the mountains where civilized life seems to have come awake early in Spain, there is spread a continuous record of busy human affairs. Many promontories still lift towers of primeval rock on which watchmen once stood guard over the fields and homes below.